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Tamera Island
Tamera Island is a fictional island from the Source Land universe and setting. The Island is an in-world analogue of the real-world island of Cyprus, though it is considerably bigger as in the setting, there are fewer islands in the Mediterranean sea, and Tamera has varying climates due to spanning a larger region. Geography Tamera is located right between the Rahamra, the Westerlands and the Western Orient - it is both a major trade port and an extremely important strategical location, as who ever possesses that Island, more or less controls the Mediterranean sea. Geographical landmarks Before anything else about Tamera is established, establishing its landmarks is necessary for the sake of referencing. The Salamander's Foot Referred to mainly just as "The Foot", the little peninsula that sticks out and forms the northern most point of Tamera is referred to as such because of a rock formation that, from sea, looks like a salamander's toes. The Salamander's (North) Wing An extremely tricky name to get, the peninsula found a bit further down the coast from the Foot is named after a particular breed of Salamander's with tail-rudders, referred to in a local dialect as "wings". There's formally a North wing and a South Wing, but the north Wing was named long before the South Wing was eventually renamed to match, so as a matter of local custom, the North Wing is known simply as "The Wing", and the South Wing is never really referred to as a Wing at all. The Salamander's (South) Wing The officially named, South Wing (found more or less diagonally across from the North Wing), is actually called "the Bay's Horn" by almost everyone in Tamera. That was its original name, until it was discovered (by the use of later maps), that it could aptly be renamed to fit the local naming culture in regards to Salamander references - though the re-branding hasn't settled with the local population yet. The Salamander's Ridge Officially called the Salamander's Ridge, the northern mountain range is mostly referred to as the "Ridge" or the "Shatter Stones", the latter being the most common name for the mountain range. The villages in the passes are quarry villages that produce bricks as their main occupation. Tempest Redoubt The semi-bay found north of the North-Eastern most part of the Ridge, which is shielded by a long island, was used as a hide-away by an Imperial Admiral who commanded a fleet known as the Tempest War-Fleet, and he established a number of improvised fortifications there. They no longer exist, but more modern works have replaced them. North-Shore Thickets The woods found near Shatter Stones (though not including the forest immediately south of the Ridge). These woods are composed mainly of shorter trees and shrubbery, populating the slight rocky hills that surround the mountains - for the same reason, no one has bothered clearing them, as there is no farmland to gain from doing so. Pine-ridge timberland The forest found immediately south of Shatter Stones is called Pine-ridge timberland. There is a lumber mill in one of the passes. The name comes from the fact that there is a considerable ridge line on the south-side of the mountains - covered in pine-trees predominantly; though the rest of the forest is fairly mixed. The Salamander's Gut The mid-section that connects the two parts of the Island, consists of a long stretch of flat-lands that sometimes come under water during rainstorms, though have mostly proven reliable for farming. These lands are simply called the "Flat-lands" by the locals, and no one uses the vulgar official name. The Salamander's Womb The bay found along the East Coast, furthest to the North of it, is called the Salamander's Womb, but is more commonly known as Foggy-Bay, due to frequent heavy fogs in the bay. The Salamander's Perch The peninsula that sticks out just above Foggy-Bay is officially called The Salamander's Perch, or just "The Perch", but to spite the dismayed owners of the land, the common folk have taken to calling it "The Salamander's Prick", though this has become a punishable offense. Tameran Wilds The woodland that begins on The Perch and stretches significant distances south and west, is called the Tameran Wilds collectively. Officially, this region is home to a significant number of smaller sub-sections, but they are extremely difficult to tell apart. Keppel's Bluff The Peninsula just below Foggy-Bay is called Keppel's Bluff - the entire coastline there is high above the water levels on a ridge, referred to as Keppel's Bluff due to Keppel being the Naval Commander of Imperial Forces that, a long time ago, used the Bluff as a scouting outpost to spy on incoming enemy vessels, taking advantage of the ridge to send a fire-signal to his scout-ships on the other side of the Island (they could see the flames, because the terrain was down-hill, but the enemy couldn't because the ridge blocked the sight and the night-sky concealed the smoke) to warn his fleet. Smuggler's Bay Smuggler's Bay is the only surviving name of the bay found south of Keppel's Bluff. It's called as such, because boats with no lights on, can travel unnoticeably along the tall cliffs and in the bay to the caverns at the end of the bay - despite being called Smuggler's Bay, the bay has no particular history being used for smuggling. The Crone-Woods Immediately west of Smuggler's Bay, a section of the Tameran Wilds is called the Crone-Woods, due to the legends of a mysterious Crone living there. While people still hunt and gather firewood from the thickets around the Crone-Woods, no one dares venture into those woods. Crone-Wood Hills The Crone-Wood hills, also called "hill-side", is the formal name of, more or less, the entire peninsula found south of Smuggler's Bay. The hills have always been shrouded in mystery, but they make for excellent hunting grounds. The Rift The Rift was the result of unsupervised mining adjacent to a quarry - the miners and quarry workers dug into what appeared to be some old caverns and underground ruins, and it resulted in a large and very impaction collapse almost a century ago. It's located on the southern side of the Salamander's Ridge. The Salt Dunes The Salt Dunes is a fairly large patch of desert-like terrain found way to the South of Tamera. These sand dunes were once (thousands of years ago) under water, and it is entirely unknown what caused this to change - but as a result, the dunes are covered in beach-sand packed with salt. Salamander's Spine The Mountain Range found in the South of Tamera Island is called the Salamander's Spine. It is home to a number of mining towns found in the passes. The mountain range is fairly small, and most of the mountains are tall by merit of the low valleys and dales in between them, and not their own sheer height. Salamander Spike The tallest mountain on Tamera Island, found in the Salamander's Spine, near the Western end of the mountain range - the official name being Salamander Spike, but the local name being Mount Tamera. The mountain is very tall and has proven extremely difficult to climb. There appears to be some sort of old structure at the very top and while there are plenty of theories about this structure, no one seems to know exactly what it is. Tamera Bay The large bay found north of the Mount Tamera, with its inlet to the West. The bay is most well known for featuring the Island that holds Tamera's capital. Regions Before anything else about Tamera is established, establishing its regions is necessary for the sake of referencing. The Salamander's Tail If you draw a line from the South-Eastern most point of the North-Western most peninsula of Tamera, down through the central pass of the Salamander's Ridge, and to the North-Eastern-most point of the peninsula just South-East of the Ridge, then the area West of that line is called the Salamander's Tail. Sundered Stones Highlands The region that begins immediately East of the Tail is officially named Sundered Stones Highlands, though as it is quite a mouthful, even on official documents, it has become socially acceptable to refer to it by a number of other similar names - including Sunder Stones, Highlands and a few others. Church Lands The lands comprised primarily by the Perch are Church Lands. A monastery devoted to Helios is the center of this community, but the lands are also home to a stronghold and training facility for Helionite Templars. Gold Coast The Gold Coast called as such because of the golden hue the water often assumes during the early hours. This region is found south of the Church Lands, and follows the coast all the way down to the Storm Reef. The Barrens The Barrens is the name of the land found near the Salt Dunes. These lands are poor and the fortress there is the main stronghold for the Westerland Crusade Coalition forces, and the surrounding lands belong to the Coalition force, with almost all the citizens there being refugees. No-man's-land No-man's-land is a region on Tamera that makes up the south-western most section of the Island. Known for it's wild and rocky coast land, the marshes and bogs that makes the, already excessive, woodland incredibly inhospitable and the clay-filled and rocky soil that makes up the rest of the land. Tamera Bay The central bay of the Island is called Tamera Bay - but the region is also frequently called "The Bay-lands". The bay houses the Island capital of Tamera, the City State of Bedrock. The surrounding farming villages belong to the City State, and as per the Treaty of Tamera, all other settlements on Tamera are subject to the Sovereign rule of the Tameran Governor. Size Tamera is a very large island, surpassed only by a two known (non-floating) Islands in size, though both are more than twice as large as Tamera. Comparatively, Tamera is roughly the same size as the heartlands of the Riveran Kingdoms in the Westerland. Climate The Island of Tamera is subject to many differing climates due to reaching into various different local climates of neighboring regions. History Tameran History begins long before humans first emerged as a dominant species, with the Eldar establishing a research post on the Island. That research post was found where Bedrock is today, though extremely little is known about Tamera during these ages. Imperial Era During the Imperial Era, the Empire had a number of violent campaigns against their Eastern neighbors, and Tamera became an essential piece of the Empire's Strategy to dominate the Mediterranean Sea. * Some time into the Imperial Era, trade vessels started going mission and some returned telling tales of violent sea-raiders to the South-East of the Mediterranean Sea. The Empire launched the Tempest Battle-Fleet to investigate and deal with the threat. The Empire discovered that it wasn't a singular nation attacking them, but a series of Eastern nations on another continent. * Unable to identify who had been behind the raids, the Tempest Battle-Fleet took a very consequential stance on the matter. As befits an Imperial Battle-Fleet, the battle-cry was Death over Dishonor, and the fleet more or less engaged everything they discovered, demanding surrenders and subjugation to the Imperial Authority, capturing dozens of ships, taking hundreds of prisoners and forcing the surrender of multiple coastal cities and settlements. * In a matter of months, a coalition formed among the attacked nations who had no over-arching government. They launched several counter-offensives and dealt significant damage to the Tempest Battle-Fleet, that was forced to retreat due to facing unknown quantities of hostiles. In truth, the battle-fleet had actually broken the enemy offensive, but they had no intelligence that revealed this. * The Tempest Battle-Fleet first utilized the Tempest Redoubt on Tamera to weather out the repeated attacks that had worn down their vessels. Refusing to lead the enemy home to their own harbors and risk the lives of civilians along their coasts as well as civilian vessels at sea, the fleet wintered on Tamera and repaired their fleet - repelling all attacks with the Islands natural defenses. * Keppel, an Imperial Admiral, was initially sent to figure out what had happened to the Tempest Battle-Fleet. Discovering the fleet wintering in the Redoubt, he covered their retreat by hiding his own fleet in Tamera Bay and placing scouts across the Island of Tamera. He himself, manned a scouting post on Keppel's Bluff, from where he soon spotted the approaching enemy fleet. * Keppel sent a single scout to inform the Tempest Battle-Fleet, that was now back in Imperial Ports, that the enemy had re-emerged, and then he waited. The enemy attacked the Redoubt, where they lost countless of ships to the improvised coastal defenses, and found no enemy ships. * The Eastern-Coalition Fleet continued to pursue their enemy in the Western direction, but was switfly attacked by Keppel's fleet from behind, emerging from Tamera Bay, only to be caught in a masterful naval-pincer move at sea, crushed between the scout fleet and the battle-fleet. * From Tamera Island, the Empire began the conquest of the Western-Orient, and for decades, the Island was nothing more than a super-sized naval-fortification. Source Era In the Source Era, the Empire had fallen, but Estheim did maintain control of Tamera for a very long time. However, it was far too risky for Estheim to send regular ships to Tamera, so they were forced to give Tamera independent rulership. * Bedrock was named a City-State and a protectorate and vassal of Estheim, with the Prince of Bedrock holding the title of Governor of Tamera, because Estheim still claimed ownership of the rest of the Island at that time. The Holy Wars The Holy Wars followed soon after the Empire's Collapse. As a direct result of the hostilities that came around the initial discovery of the West-Orient, the Westerlanders and the Orientals never did get along and it wasn't long until these hostilities started affecting the incredibly important Source-Trade with the Far-East. * The religious institutions instigated a Holy War to remedy this, thinking they could beat the enemy into submission. The holy wars were primarily motivated by the desire to retain good business, by various wealthy importers - but it was also an arms-race between the Westerlands and the West-Orient, neither side wanting the other to develop their Source-Mastery too far. * The term "the Holy Lands" came to apply to the Northern Rahamran lands, because they were the lands in which most of the actual battles of the Holy Wars occurred. There wasn't anything actually holy about these lands, according to any of the faiths, but they were called as such regardless, so much so that even a few preachers slipped up and assumed it to be so. * Tamera Island was instrumental as a tactical and strategic location, but Estheim caved in too late, and did not buckle to the pressure of the Westerlands, to rescind their control of the Island to work together, until after the West-Orient had managed to successfully invade the Free Cities. * Estheim finally caved and the Westerland Holy-war Military Coalition was formed, typically just referred to as the Westerland Coalition. The Governor of Tamera granted the Coalition the rights to build a stronghold in the barrens (fairly useless lands), as he was an Estheim Loyalist, and didn't agree with letting foreigners on his Island - though the coalition accepted because the location was sound, even if it was a logistically problematic region. * Estheim formed the first Templar Order that the world had known during the Holy Wars, and one of their main strongholds was placed on Tamera - The Governor granted the finest lands of the Island, facing directly against the enemy, to the Templars of Helios. * The treaty of Tamera was signed, and it didn't just establish the Coalition, but also formed an Alliance between the various Westerland faiths against the Church of the Divine Light. As such, many other Templar Organizations would soon form, and most of them had their beginnings in the Templar Stronghold on Tamera, training jointly under the tutelage of the Estheim Helionite Templars.